Stoney Ground Herbs

Beautiful, strong herbs for NZ gardeners and herbalists of all levels

It’s Not You, It’s Me…

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Catalyst Fruit Wines

How many times have I written this post without publishing it? Several times; it’s like trying to pen a break up letter to someone you’re actually in love with but you know it’s just not going to work out… It’s not you, it’s me. Honest!

In actual fact, this will work as a nice in to what it is I want to write; what I need to write.

Stoney Ground Herbs has been running for eight years now. It has taken me on some terrific and unexpected journeys. For one, I did not imagine I would send plants all around New Zealand, I set up thinking I would just be servicing the Kāpiti region (we were living in Paekakariki at the time). I did not expect to be supplying dried herbs for set designers working at TV production companies (cracker year that one!). I did not realise that my articles on Maramataka Māori would be more popular than any herb article I’ve written.

I have had successes, I have had failures, I have loved sharing my knowledge, I have wished I received more feedback, I have put my heart and soul into growing my plants and I have been rewarded knowing that most were going to gardens/gardeners with the same energy.

But it’s time to tread another path my friends.

I have loved supplying you with plants (or entertainment!) – but now I want to supply people with my own take on fruit wines (more often than not herbs are involved in my brews). Bit of a jump I know, but this is where my heart is now. I’ve been making fruit wines for four years but it’s going to take another year before I will legally be able to sell my wines. I don’t have a website yet (not much point until I’m legit) but if you would be interested in when I’ll be up and running, contact me through the contact form and I’ll put you on my mailing list. I have an Instagram account here @catalystfruitwines.

I was going to wait until the end of the season but covid has sped things along with sending difficulties and cancelled markets. I think it’s only fair to everyone that I shut up shop now. If you are on my white sage email list I will still contact you if and when I have plants available. But please do support these other businesses that I’m sure have been dealing with their own setbacks… or not! Support them anyway…

If I find I just can’t help but propagate more plants I will possibly sell on Trade Me, but we’ll see… I might actually focus on my own gardens… and Catalyst Fruit Wines!

So there we go, do I push the publish button? Golly…

Well, I’ve just had a natter to my plants and yep, they are in agreeance that it’s time, all a bit nerve wracking; am I doing the right thing? Will I regret this? Will I piss people off? ~ actually, don’t care! Will my fruit wines absolutely rock your fkn socks off? I bloody hope so!

Remember to check out my insta account Catalyst Fruit Wines and contact me to go on my mailing list (you can just write Catalyst in the message or Wine, whatever!).

OK folk, love ya, grow well, keep on growing, look up Mark Manson, use your herbs (it’s the best way to keep them shipshape), support small businesses, be vocal, speak up, yes protest, but also tell people that they’re doing a stellar job or you love their stuff, be effusive (but not, too like, scary full on eh!), trust your instinct, do what you love, accept that passions ebb and flow, acknowledge when the tide of passion is out and not coming back, grow old gracefully, plant a tree, feed others, unless you’re hurting others~ don’t buy into guilt, you’re doing a great job. You are enough. I am enough and it’s time to stop blabbering… so hard to say good bye!!!! 😥😂 See ya!!!!!

Level 4

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Well, here we go again. Lockdown, Level 4.

Cheers to staying home, cheers to homemade Cherry and Elderberry wine!

I’ll get straight to the point (well, as straight as I can get!). Courier agencies are putting it into businesses hands as to whether we regard our products as “essential”. The Government definitely has clear guidelines on what is essential, plants aren’t on it and couriers are recommending to hold off on sending perishables due to the delay in deliveries..

So. I will not be sending plants for the month of August. Come September, if we are still in lockdown levels 4 or 3, I am regarding my products as essential. Gardening is so good for the heart, soul, mind and body and by September we will need everything we can get that will keep us in a healthy state of mind and being. Not to mention that its optimum gardening time and to be totally frank I will need some cash flow happening by then!

the least I can do

Fortunately I stocked up on Daltons Organic Potting Mix weeks ago, and I had made a decision actually just days before the UN IPCC report that instead of buying new (uniform) pots for my plants this season I would first use up all my odds and sods. Cleaned and sterilised in the sun of course.

In the meantime, remember to check out my guide for gardening by the moon, Aotearoa styles for this time period, you’ll find it right here.

Stay safe, be wise and feel free to let me know what plants you’ll be after over the next few weeks, to be fair a lot are not going to be ready until October in any case, can’t rush these things 🌿

Tincture Sale

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Hey hey, all my tinctures are available for $10.00 now.

Tinctures for sale in NZ
A sample

With the advent of me getting a new website soon I’m looking through what I’ve got and what I have available and deciding to do away with some products. Tinctures are in my firing line as is some of my plants, mainly the culinary ones. Most of you whom find me and buy from me are not here for culinary herbs, I’m totally down with that, so off they go! It certainly does not mean my plant list will be getting shorter, all going well (ie. my propagations strike) it will be getting longer with some beautiful plants in the pipeline, whoop whoop!

Short post today, I have cuttings to do whilst the weather is fine (but brrr, isn’t it cold!). Go here to find my tinctures. First in first served!

Dried Herb Update

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I’ve changed my system, I’ve updated my dried herb listings and I even have a couple of new herbs available… Whoop whoop!

Dried nettle, NZ Stoneygroundherbs
Lesser nettle (Urtica urens)

My original game plan from the inception of Stoney Ground Herbs was to grow herbs en masse to dry and have available for the home herbalist and professional herbalist alike. I have made various discoveries over time about demand for certain herbs, the sort of quantities that tea makers are looking for and; that it’s quite a thankless task as a product to sell…..!

As an example, I will hand pick each chamomile flower, I will get a whole basket full, I then dry it, it looks stunning, smells stunning and weighs nothing!

german chamomile, dried, baby balm, uses
German Chamomile

Then someone will ask if they could “just” get 500g of chamomile. 500grams is a shat load of dried herb! Even if I did have 500g of any herb the price I would charge is out of a lot of people’s ball park~ and my prices have probably been too low for the amount of mahi (work) that goes into growing, thriving, harvesting (non machine), drying, processing + packaging the herb.

There are people whom totally appreciate the work, the product, the fact that it is locally (NZ) grown and organic and that they’re supporting a small business. Hell, I would’ve given up a long time ago if it weren’t for these people. But I also appreciate that it’s actually quite hard to get your head around what sort of volume you’ll be getting for the quantity requested.

This is where we welcome my new way of selling dried herb…

I will now be selling my herbs by volume in these fabulous biodegradable pottles. I have two sizes available, 24oz and 12oz.

Dried motherwort, NZ Stoneygroundherbs

The smaller pottle will be useful for one off medicinal balms, tinctures, syrups and for single blend teas or a component of a blended tea. The larger pottle for the true lovers of the particular herb or those that have a particular need for a fair share of herb.

Dried self heal, NZ Stoneygroundherbs
Self heal

New dried herbs available are Self heal (Prunella vulgaris), Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), and Sage (Salvia officinalis). Think healing balms, teas, natural remedies, medicine making.

I have a new format for my listings and one of the biggest changes is transparency. You can see exactly how much you will be getting, you will know what part of the herb you’re getting, whether it’s available, potential uses and you will know when it was harvested. Check it out here, using Motherwort as an example.

Some people have trouble on my website locating what dried herbs I have, we’re working on this. In the meantime, if you are on your mobile; go to the three lines underneath my logo, that will take you to a drop down menu, beside Dried herbs there is a wee + sign, press that and you’ll get another drop down menu with the individual listings (press on them to see the details). If you’re on desktop/laptop, hover your cursor over Dried herbs to see the drop down menu. If you click directly on Dried herbs you’ll see my tikanga for my dried herbs, which is always interesting to know eh!

Kia ora!

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Kia ora folk! Hoo-wee! Feels like I haven’t been here in a while, happy new year and all that jazz!

My negligence here, hmm, no let’s word that differently… My concentration has been taken up by a few other things. Firstly the whole Christmas and New Years thing; I was quite pleased once it was all over to be honest, it was nice it was fun, but always takes a bit of extra-curricular planning and hyped expectations, especially if you have kids!

Not the most complimentary shot of any of us, but here’s our family in Whakatāne way for Christmas

Secondly, it is drying season and with this weather being so higgedly piggedly working out the ideal times to harvest my herbs and know that they will dry in premium time, takes a bit of forethought. White sage season has also begun, this is when I go through my wait list, send out emails 20 at a time, wait for responses, get plants ready, freak out that I’m not going to cut it or my plants aren’t, know that I’m fine, check that I’ve been paid, send them out….and repeat!

Vegie garden maintaining, staking, de-lateraling tomatoes, weeding… at least I’ve hardly had to water, thanks grey days…not!

But mainly, I’ve been a bit pre-occupied with a new project; it’s an expansion on Stoney Ground Herbs but well, almost a whole ‘nother beast. I can’t really say too much about it yet but it’s going to be really cool and I’m super excited. There’s a whole lot of work involved (it’s huge!), but fortunately I’m a team player and I’ve got people on my side working on the products, the developments, the technical parts and the ‘keep SandRa real’ parts! So if I’m a bit quiet, this is what I’m doing… But be ready for some noise!

In the meantime here’s some photos of the gardens and I promise I will get back onto the blog writing wagon!

Hope your gardens are flourishing too!

Golden plum tree
Oh, and it’s the start of preserving season, our Golden Plum tree has been over zealous in its generosity, I can’t keep up!
Clary sage, Salvia sclarea 'Turkenstanica'
Clary sage, Salvia sclarea ‘Turkenstanica’. Looking gorgeous, smelling even better, the smell gets stronger as the flowers age.
Vegie garden
OK, maybe I haven’t been that busy weeding…it’s on the to-do list! Zucchini, borlotti beans, corn (somewhere) and spaghetti squash.
Tomato
Nip out the growth that happens between the main stem and the main branches.. this is what’s called “delateraling”, makes for a stronger plant and better fruit.
Container gardening
I’ve been experimenting with container gardening…
Honey
Harvested a couple of frames of honey a couple of weeks ago, very exciting, very messy, very rewarding!

Wrapping up

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Well folks, this coming Monday is my last day of sending plants until after the new year.

Couriers are super busy during December and it’s just not possible for them to be as careful with the plants as I (and you) would like them to be. Trust me, I’ve learnt this the hard way (some unfortunate customers learnt this too 😭).

Market wise, I was supposed to be doing Mauriceville Market this Sunday but I’ve had to pull out due to the kids and I getting a cold this week. I was hoping I’d be better by Sunday, but still snotty and have a cough and it is not the done thing to leave the bubble when crook. Bit gutted, but hey, that’s life. I will be at the Greytown Market on the 20th Dec, perfect timing to get your kokedama Xmas gifts!

I just wanted the picture not all the other stuff! This was from a few weeks ago..

I must admit I have sold out of a lot of herb plants already this season, it’s always so hard to know how many propagations to make and then you never know how many will strike from year to year. It’s been great that so many people are jumping onto the herb wagon though, they are such wonderful resilient plants to have in the garden.

So aside from looking after my plants and gardens (and prepping for Greytown market) it’s my time to relax and get into the Xmas spirit with the kids, you know a little bit of summer would help getting into that spirit though! We haven’t even thought about what summer clothes we have for this season let alone have thoughts about going for a swim, brrrrrr!

White sage, Salvia apiana

In the new year we’ll be full steam ahead with white sage plants going to new homes, so if you’re on my wait list; the time is coming! Not all my plants are ready at the same time and so I don’t get overwhelmed, I do work through the list in the order of people contacting me as the plants become ready (ie. big enough to send). The list is long this year (every year it’s longer than the last) so if you’ve recently contacted me or thinking of contacting me I cannot guarantee you plants, if you do miss out though I put you at the top of the list for next season. I hope that made sense!

New Plants on the Books!

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Silver tansy, Tanacetum haradjanii
Silver tansy, Tanacetum haradjanii

As Spring is making itself known I’m getting a little more enthused about the coming season… Blossoms are like medicine for the soul aren’t they!

So I’ve been updating my website, working out what I’ve got, what I haven’t.. sadly I’ve had to let go of some plants as I admit defeat to this here climate, Pineapple sage is one, it does grow here, but not strong enough for me to be happy propagating from my mother plants.

But, I have added some new plants, yippee! Pictured above is one, beautiful Silver tansy is a low growing super interesting plant for the dry garden (or dry spot). Sweet violet, Self heal and Borage.

Sweet Violet, Viola odorata, plant for sale

I will also be adding Chocolate peppermint, oh yeah, if you like after dinner mints~ this is the one for you. Lemon bergamot; it’s an annual and I usually only do perennials but the flowers are so fabulous I’m bound to grow too many for just myself! Skullcap might be coming along, just waiting to see how my divisions leaf up, it’s looking pretty promising..

Stay tuned! (If you didn’t know already and you’re that way inclined, I’m on Instagram now and having a bit of fun on there, you can follow me here, https://www.instagram.com/stoneygroundherbs/)

Mid Winter Xmas Market

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Happy Matariki everyone! Hope you are doing lovely things with your whānau, remembering loved ones that have crossed over and excited about the new year…

If you’re not sure what Matariki is about, click here to find out more

I’m a little excited about this coming weekend because I’m going to be at a market and I NEVER have done a market at this time of year. The lovely little township of Greytown is currently having having a mid-winter Christmas celebration these school holidays and us regular stall holders at the Greytown Country Market are having a market this Saturday, the 18th July at the Town Hall.

photo courtesy of https://www.greytownvillage.com/

I will have a small selection of herbs (a lot of my herbs go to ground at this time of year) as well as freshly made kokedama for your indoor pleasure. I may even have some Chicken Winter Booster blends available.

kokedama will be for sale at the Greytown Market this Saturday, the 18th July 2020
An example of kokedama

Would absolutely love to see your shining faces, if I don’t know you please introduce yourself! If anyone whom has previously bought a kokedama off me and want it to have a tickle up give me a heads up and I’ll bring some gear with me and I can do it there.

Looking forward to it!

Plot Twist!

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I was really hoping I would still be able to provide dried herbs and tinctures for y’all during this weird ol’ period. I was even going to make up a whole lot of kokedama to sell online due to all my markets having been cancelled. But alas, I’m not an essential business, and couriers + NZ Post whom are essential, are only going to be collecting/delivering/posting essential business, business. So that’s me out. That’s Josh (husband/Industrial Fusion) out. Plot twist!

So, to keep myself entertained I’m going to do blog posts on how to entertain yourself and coping strategies. Maybe they’ll help you, maybe they won’t, but they’ll probably help me!

Whilst we’re still getting beautiful days get on out there into the garden, there’s still a few jobs to do. Collect seed, harvest and dry herbs, divide your clumping herbs .

Seed saving screen from LovePlantLife
Seed saving screens

A lot of herbs will self seed readily, but there are some that you might want to save just in case and it’s nice to share seeds. The seeds are found within the flowers, once the flowers start dying/drying off on the plant that’s when the seeds start hardening and you can start collecting. Store your seeds in paper envelopes, making sure the seeds are properly dry. Seed saving screens are good for seeds that need cleaning, not dirt hopefully, but husks or flower material etc. Here’s an ooold post about using seed saving screens.

Collecting seed pods for decoration is a lovely thing to do, take the time to appreciate their beauty…

Echinacea
Monarda didyma
Monarda fistulosa

For other autumn jobs in the herb garden go to this post here that I wrote around about this time last year. If you want to get straight into the dividing of your herbs go here.

It breaks my heart every time I see advice on drying (leaf) herbs and they show or tell you to hang your herbs in a nice sunny spot. If you want dull, non flavoured and possibly fly speckled herbs then by all mean dry your herbs in the sun. If you want herbs with as much as their original colour and flavour as well as their (medicinal) volatile oils, dry in a warm, well ventilated dark space. Hot water cupboards are great as are attics if easily accessible. You want them crispy dry, flowers take longer than you think to dry (if they’re going in a vase it’s not a biggy, but if they’re going in a jar you want to make sure they’re dry all the way through, mouldy flowers are so very disappointing).

Dried red clover

Keep busy my people, stay connected, to the earth and to your loved ones. If you know a health worker or supermarket worker send them as much aroha as you can! Stay well, stay at home 🌿❤

End of Season

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Just a quick note to say that I’m all sold out of herb plants for the season but I would still love to hear from you of what you’re after. It gives me a good idea on how much to propagate through the autumn and winter months.

I still have kokedama plants available, I will be at Martiborough Fair this Saturday (7th March 2020), tagging along with Industrial Fusion. I will also be at the Kimbolton Sculpture Festival on the 4th April. Perhaps somehow I’ll even work out how to sell my kokedama here on my website!

Corkscrew rush (Juncus effusus "Spiralis") kokedama
Corkscrew rush (Juncus effusus “Spiralis”) kokedama

OK, hope you’re getting a bit of rain at the moment wherever you are…and a bit of dryness if you’re down south!

(If you are getting a smattering of rain, water your garden, this is the time to do it so that whatever rain comes actually gets absorbed through to the roots.)